A VERY rare picture of opening night at The Avon
Theatre
on Nov. 28th, 1916

THE AVON THEATERThe Avon
Theater officially opened in 1916, just a few short weeks after
the Lincoln Theater opened its doors for the first time. The Avon was a
unique place in that it was a large, grand theater, on the scale of the
Empress Theater or the Lincoln Theater, but yet the Avon had been
constructed for showing moving pictures only. There
would be some live entertainment and music, but this theater was a folly
to many.... they believed that moving pictures were simply a passing fad
and would never last.

Over the
years, the American film industry has defied the odds and has
endured. Fortunately, even after a number of near disasters, the
same can be said for the Avon. After a bright beginning and a
long run of success, the theater was closed down and abandoned
and most feared that it would be lost. For several years, it was
said the Avon would soon join most of the other old theaters in
Decatur and would be destroyed. But yet somehow, the theater
still remains today. Thanks to public interest, creative
planning, innovative thinking and a lot of hard work, the Avon
is once again open and thriving in downtown Decatur.

THE
AVON THEATER DURING ITS HEYDAY IN THE 1940'S

The Avon opened on November 28,
1916 and was decorated with original artwork by Mrs. CO Knapp of
Bement, a local artist, making the Avon one of the most expensively
decorated moving picture houses in the entire country. The ornaments and
decor inside of the theater were said to even rival the twin,
seven-foot-tall monuments on the posts outside of the building. A third
statue was located just above the curtains. It was of a woman, reclining
in the nude, and holding a wreath outward toward the audience. On a
parallel with this figure, circling the entire auditorium, were
base-relief casts of women’s heads. They were only matched by the lion’s
heads that circle the theater below them, the eyes of those creatures
glowing with brilliant light.

THE
STATUE OF THE WOMAN THAT ORIGINALLY WAS LOCATED ABOVE THE
SCREEN,
BUT NOW IS HIDDEN BEHIND THE CURRENT ONE

The artwork
and the decor were not the only things that make this theater
special. The screen was the largest and best designed in the city.
Dozens of hours were spent whitewashing the rear wall of the
theater in an attempt to make it as smooth and as clean as
possible. The film projectors were the best models available and
an orchestra was scheduled to appear on a regular basis to provide
musical accompaniment for the films. In addition, the theater was
also equipped with a giant pipe organ that was electrically
controlled. It was located in three different parts of the
building so that it would be acoustically correct for the entire
audience.

The opening-night audience was treated to a few words
from Decatur’s mayor, Dan Dineen, who expressed his appreciation for
the theater. He stated that it is “unquestionably
the handsomest and largest in the state of Illinois devoted exclusively
to moving pictures.” He also boasted that, thanks to new
businesses like the Avon Theater opening up, Decatur could finally take
its place in the ranks of real cities.

The Avon became known as one of the most beautiful
theaters in the Midwest and prospered for many years. It would not hold
onto its crown though and the years were not kind to the place. After
some extensive remodeling that was done in the 1950’s, the theater
never again had the elegance of its early days. For several years, the
building was closed and there was thought to be no chance that the Avon
will ever welcome theater patrons through its doors again. The lobby and
auditorium fell into poor condition and the last attempts to restore, or
at least to salvage the theater’s dignity, met with indifference and a
lack of enthusiasm.... until recently, when new occupants began
restoring the old building, stirring up years of dust.

The theater saw a decline in revenue and business
during the 1980’s, becoming the last theater to operate in the
downtown area. By this time, audiences were mainly ignoring the Avon in
favor of the new multiplex theaters on the north side of town. In 1985,
the theater converted to showing second-run movies but that was not
enough to keep the place open. It finally closed down in April 1986. The
last of the independent theaters in Decatur had
now ceased to exist.

After that, the theater was empty for many years,
although there was an attempt to bring it back to life in 1989 when it
was used for several live music shows. The problem was that the theater
had never really been designed for live entertainment and the shows met
with only short-lived success.

The Avon opened again in 1993 as a second and
third-run bargain house and while the initial response was good,
business soon died out. It remained open this time for a little over a
year and then closed down for another six years. In 1999, the
Avon opened once again, this time as an independent and art film
theater, showing alternative films and limited release features that in
the past would have never been seen in Decatur. Finally, the Avon again
began to thrive and a new audience was reached. It appears the theater
has finally managed to restore itself to the status it once had and
hopefully the residents of Decatur will help to keep it there.

I spoke to my friend, theater owner and operator, Skip
Huston, and I asked him why he believed the Avon was once again
successful and why it seemed to be appealing to such a wide audience
again. “I feel like the theater really fills a
niche,” he explained, “and it’s one
that has been in need of being filled since theater in Decatur began.
Our goal is to show films that are not mainstream features. They are not
usually blockbusters but what I think of as art and alternative films. I
really like being able to bring them to the city... and apparently, the
city of Decatur likes having them here.”

If you should have the good fortune to visit the Avon,
you will find the trip to be an interesting one... if you know where to
look. Much of the decor that was described earlier in this section is
gone now. The lion’s heads have vanished with time, as has most of the
ornate plasterwork and all of the original art. Remodeling was carried
out in both the 1950’s and then two decades later, in the 1970’s. At
that time, most of the reminders of yesterday were hidden or simply
destroyed.

The only place in the theater that can give you an
indication of how things once looked is behind the screen. In 1953, a
new widescreen was installed in the Avon to show Panavision and 3-D
films. In fact, the very first widescreen film that came to Decatur, THE
ROBE, was shown at the Avon. When this work was completed, the
screen was moved about ten yards from the back wall of the theater. The
area behind the screen now acts as sort of a “time capsule” of how
the theater looked in the days when it first opened.

Time has taken its toll here too but much of the
original paint and plaster still remains, along with the decorator
pieces that were added to the woodwork. The area behind the screen is
the original, narrow stage of the theater and the place where the sound
system and the antiquated air-conditioning unit is located. Directly
above the heads of any visitors is the relief of the nude, reclining
woman that once looked out over every audience that came to the theater.
She is in fairly poor condition now, but the artwork and the design that
went into her creation is rarely seen today.

Just below her, and only inches above the air
conditioning duct that was added much later, is another example of the
theater’s artwork. There, mounted onto the wood and plaster wall, is a
pair of angels that are holding a metal shield between them. There is a
letter “A” ornately inscribed on the shield.

In
addition, most of the original painted stencils remain on the
walls and ceiling here as well. The small dressing rooms also
remain on both sides of the original stage. They were once used
by the performers and celebrities who came to entertain and
announce the films that played here. There is detailed wood
decoration around the doorways and also around the doorways that
led upstairs to the private seating boxes. These boxes were once
located directly above the pipe organ mechanisms and they
offered an unobstructed view of the original screen. Other than
these lonely doorways, no trace of the boxes can be found today.

ONE
OF THE ORNATE DOORWAYS BEHIND THE SCREEN, WHICH LED TO DRESSING
ROOMS AND THE PRIVATE SEATING BOXES